Hampshire County Council is about to embark on a large scale investment of over £2.3 million to improve the transport network in Eastleigh, for the benefit of all those who live and work in the area - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport passengers.

The co-ordinated and planned approach will see a package of investment with works carried out over the next four months on Bishopstoke Road, Eastleigh train station, the Leigh Road / Passfield Avenue junction and Chickenhall Lane.

All the schemes will be carefully co-ordinated to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum and the benefits of the works -to improve the area, ease congestion and increase safety - are realised as soon as possible.

Overview of the projects:

Bishopstoke Road / Fair Oak Road

Work to replace the retaining river wall, which was knocked down by a vehicle, will start on Monday 16 February for 16 weeks. Bishopstoke Road will be reduced to a single lane controlled by traffic lights between 9.30am and 3.30pm Monday to Friday and between 8.00am and 1.00pm on some Saturdays.

Eastleigh Station

Work to improve accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists at the station forecourt will start on Monday 2 March for 12 weeks. The scheme includes a new toucan crossing for pedestrians and cyclists crossing Southampton Road, as well as upgrading and improving the look of the station forecourt.

Leigh Road / Passfield Avenue / Woodside Avenue

Work to solve congestion and improve pedestrian safety at this junction will start on Monday 23 February for around twenty weeks. The main works will see the junction resurfaced and better signals installed to reduce queue length, controlled pedestrian and cycle crossings east to west across Woodside Avenue and north to south across Leigh Road (W), and extension of the left turn lane on Leigh Road (W) and extension of the nearside lane on Leigh Road (E). Most of these works are on private land allowing the junction to stay open throughout.

Resurfacing Chickenhall Lane

Work to resurface Chickenhall Lane, under Operation Resilience, will take place over two weekends on 6-8 March and 13-15 March. The work is part of Hampshire's long term strategy to make the county's roads more resilient to the effects of extreme weather and heavy traffic and increase the life span of the road.

Hampshire County Council's Executive Member for Economy Transport and Environment, Councillor Seán Woodward, said: "Good roads are essential for Eastleigh's economic prosperity, infrastructure and quality of life, but above all these works will improve safety for all road users. Work on this scale will inevitably cause some disruption which is regrettable but unavoidable if we want to see results which all residents and local businesses can benefit from."

A budget that will inject hundreds of millions of pounds of new economic activity into Hampshire was finalised by Hampshire County Councillors today.

The Budget for 2015/16 includes a Capital Programme representing £876m spend over four years - the biggest ever investment in jobs and supply chains. It provides resource and capacity to deliver more and better schools places, improved roads, Extra Care homes and superfast broadband.

Council Leader Roy Perry said it was a "careful, cautious and competent budget". It will keep Hampshire in a strong position to tackle the further austerity measures needed to meet the ongoing downward pressures on Local Government funding over the next few years, when revenue savings will become very much harder to find.

Starting early and using transformation programmes to generate significant efficiencies, the Council has worked through a reduction of 51 per cent in general grant from Government since 2010. The job of managing the council's finances had been more difficult than ever.

The revenue budget, which covers the cost of providing services, has had to be reduced by a further 12 per cent in 2015/16 to meet cuts in grant, and to balance demand pressures linked to an ageing population and children in care. As a priority area, additional resources of £12.5m have been built into the Children's Services budgets for vulnerable children in need of support and services. Following consultation, the budget also provides money to sustain the Short Breaks programme for children with disabilities and for youth services, while other sources of funding are explored.

The County's share of the Council Tax has been set at the same level for the sixth year in a row at £1037.88 for a Band D property. The Leader said that, with inflation at 11 per cent in that time, this represented a real term decrease of 9.9 per cent, reducing the call in real terms on stretched household finances.

He said Hampshire County Council was maintaining its record of having one of the lowest levels of Council Tax, while providing some of the highest levels of services and with one of the lowest levels of Government grant per head of population.

"According to Ofsted, our children's services are some of the best in the country. We lead the country in property and shared services, growing an expanded organisation whereby other councils buy increasing levels of professional services from us, allowing us to retain high quality staff and capacity for the benefit of Hampshire residents. The condition of Hampshire roads scores highest with road users, again by independent evaluation" he said.

The Council will need to find further savings of around £100m by 2017, on top of the £240m it is on track to have removed from its expenditure by March 2016 with this budget. The Council will begin consultation in March on a range of options to deliver the right support to residents at the right time and in the best way, which is likely to mean scaling back some areas and doing some things differently. Cllr Perry said more and more partnership working between county, district and town and parish and the voluntary sector was needed to address these pressures.

Referring to the start of work last week on a new £548,000 youth drop-in centre at Ringwood, Cllr Perry said the Town Council contributed to the running of youth services and has contributed £70,000 capital to the new centre. He encouraged other town and parish councils to think if they could do anything to help."Increasingly county funding will have to be targeted at those in greatest need - if local communities want to retain more general provision - and I applaud them if they do - then we all need to be more imaginative and supportive.

"I want the county to help communities, just as we help with the fleet of 70 community mini buses that are operated by councils of community service and parish councils across the county," he said.

Councillor Perry also paid tribute to the commitment of council staff who were having to take on new and different roles. The demography and complexity of adult social care in particular mean that the services and management capacity were stretching the very best talent across different organisations. By expanding its services to other authorities it was offering a future in an organisation that was growing its businesses, growing its capacity and creating opportunities for promotion and personal development.

Hampshire County Council's Operation Resilience team, as part of their maintenance programme, will be resurfacing Chickenhall Lane in Eastleigh from 6 March 2015.

The carriageway resurfacing work is part of Hampshire County Council's long term strategy to make Hampshire's roads more resilient to the effects of extreme weather and heavy traffic. This planned approach to highways maintenance is more cost effective in that the work lasts for a longer period than if it was done reactively once the road surface had already begun to deteriorate.

In order to minimise the impact of the resurfacing, work will be carried out in two phases over two weekends. Phase one will be from the end of Chickenhall Lane (where access is gained to the Water Treatment Works) to just short of the access into Phoenix Park will be over the weekend of 6 March to 8 March. The second phase of work will resurface the rest of Chickenhall Lane up to the junction with Bishopstoke Road and will be carried out between 13 March and 15 March. During each phase that part of the road will be closed from 7pm Friday to 7pm Saturday and then 7am to 7pm on Sunday. Pedestrian access will be maintained for the duration of the works.

In order to complete the work as quickly as possible the Council is reminding people who park in Chickenhall Lane to ensure no vehicles are parked on the road on the days of the resurfacing, as there will be parking restrictions in place.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "This is a busy industrial estate and we have worked closely with the businesses to ensure they are still able to access their place of work when they need to, however I would ask people to be patient while we complete the works. They work will be carried out to keep disruption to a minimum, but I would ask residents and people working in the area to allow extra time for their journeys and plan their travel and parking arrangements in advance.

"Good transport infrastructure is vital for Hampshire' economic prosperity, and it's important everyone can rely on well maintained roads so they can go about their day to day business. The approach taken for works under Operation Resilience is cost effective and efficient, and will mean the road will last for longer without need for further repairs in the near future."

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "As forecast, Hampshire saw some snow last night, between 1cm and 6cm across the county. There were 55 Highways salting lorries out through the night making sure roads were treated ahead of the morning rush hour so that people could get to work and school as normal.

"Most areas were treated with just rock salt, which helps prevent ice forming on surfaces, but snow ploughs were also out where needed including the A354 in the New Forest. It's also good to hear reports of some of the 4,000 salt bins we've placed at the heart of communities being put to good use by good neighbours. I am pleased to say we've not had any reports of problems and that the network ran smoothly this morning.

"Priority 2 routes are being treated again this afternoon, Priority 1 routes this evening, and Community routes in the morning. As always, the weather forecast, road and air temperatures will be constantly monitored so decisions can be made on when and where to salt the roads."

With a mix of winter weather forecast over the next few days, the County Council's highways teams are ready to keep the roads clear and Hampshire moving.

According to the forecasters, the north west of Hampshire may see snow on higher ground tomorrow morning. In addition, most areas of the county will see heavy rain throughout tomorrow which may result in some localised surface water flooding, and also strong winds, particularly along the coast, that may bring down trees. Ice is likely to form in the early hours of Wednesday morning across the county.

Salting vehicles will start at 9pm tonight treating all priority one routes which include A roads, some B roads, major bus routes, roads to major emergency services, large schools and areas of high traffic concentration.

Extra highways crews are on standby, including arboriculture teams who can deal with fallen trees on the roads throughout the day and night. Stocks of filled sandbags are ready to be deployed onto the highway network to keep water off the roads if need be, and vehicles will remain on standby through the night for potential additional salt spreading on priority one routes to tackle icy or snowy conditions.

Hampshire's highways teams are on full alert from October to the end of April, ready to deal with wintry road conditions monitoring air and road conditions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "We are ready to send out highways crews around the clock to keep Hampshire's roads clear, and will do all we can to make sure people can go about their day to day business as far as possible whatever the weather. I would, however, urge people to drive according to the conditions, and if the weather gets particularly severe to consider if their journeys are essential."

The County Council is also reminding residents to look out for family, friends, and neighbours in their communities who might be vulnerable in cold weather. Taking extra care during cold weather is particularly important for people who are more susceptible to suffering ill health due to the cold. If people have any concerns about anyone in their community, please call 0845 603 5630.

The County Council has worked with more than 30 rural communities over the last year to help them prepare community resilience plans so that they can better prepare themselves for extremes of weather.

A top-level rail summit has been held this week to launch a campaign for greater long-term investment in Hampshire's railways.

Rail bosses, Hampshire MPs, leaders of local authorities and representatives of Local Enterprise Partnerships met last night (Thursday 9 January 2015) amid concerns that rail infrastructure serving Hampshire is unable to cope with continued growth in passengers and freight.

Hampshire County Council Leader, Councillor Roy Perry hosted the meeting in Winchester where the aim was to provide collective support to lobby for a fair share of Government investment to improve frequency and reliability on some of the most congested sections of railway in Britain.

To back their case, they highlight that Hampshire and the South East contribute more to the Exchequer than any other region, and the area is a national economic gateway, with routes on which UK businesses rely heavily for overseas markets, supply chains and two major ports. The south western railway is the only area which fully pays its way and makes a positive return to Government.

More than 37 million rail journeys were made from stations in Hampshire in 2013, up 116% since 1995/96, with a further 14 million journeys from stations in Portsmouth and Southampton.

Chief Executive of the Network Rail - South West Trains Alliance, Tim Shoveller, outlined the industry's priorities for addressing a forecast 40% growth in passenger volumes on routes to London across the region, over the next 30 years.

Options within the draft Wessex Route Study are currently out for consultation. These include: new double deck trains, electrification of the line to Salisbury, 125mph on some sections of track, flyovers at Woking and Basingstoke, extra platforms at Southampton Central and Guildford, development of cab-based signalling and automatic train operation, and an extra track from Surbiton to Clapham Junction connecting to Crossrail 2.

Organisations present, which also included representatives from Southampton and Portsmouth as well as Hampshire districts, all agreed they will stress the need for further investment into rail to serve the general Hampshire area, and will continue to lobby as a whole group for significant rail investment.

Steve Brine, MP for Winchester and Chandler's Ford, outlined the MPs' perspective. He stressed that Hampshire MPs had long held concerns about overcrowding on rail services in the Hampshire area. Maria Miller MP had led a debate in the House of Commons before Christmas about this. Further housing developments in Hampshire and the increasing volumes of freight will put the rail network under greater pressure in the future. He commented that some improvements had been made, such as the new footbridge at Winchester station, but that further major investment would be required to deal with the constraints of the suburban network and to increase the capacity of Waterloo station.

Councillor Perry said: "For a long while there's been limited investment into the network serving Hampshire, and that's why we want a united voice to encourage Government to recognise the economic significance of rail capacity, and to support the Local Enterprise Partnership strategies to collectively make this investment happen.

"The importance of rail travel has long been recognised by local authorities, for example Chandler's Ford railway station, built by Hampshire County Council for £2.2 million in 2003, is now used by 244,000 passengers a year. We've also part-funded major passenger improvements at Fleet, Farnborough Main, Southampton Parkway, Alton and Andover stations.

"The network improvements we've had outlined for us are a multi-billion investment, which is similar to what has already happened in other parts of the country, while this area has missed out. The south western railway is the only area which fully pays its way and makes a positive return to Government. This is why we need to get our act together to make the case for the Hampshire area to get the investment needed."

]]>Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:43:00 GMTChanges to bus services to come in from January 2015http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=662920http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=662920
Changes to bus services to come in from January 2015

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Hampshire County Council is asking residents to check newly released bus timetables for any changes to their usual routes, following a review of public transport funding which was carried out earlier in the year.

The Council has looked closely at where to focus its funding for public and community transport, which accounts for 15 per cent of bus journeys in Hampshire. It is committed to maintaining public transport for communities that reflect public priorities for day time, week-day services and, in October, agreed changes to the subsidies it pays to bus operators to support services which are not commercially viable.

The bus operators have now released their timetables for the New Year, and changes to bus services will take affect from 4 January 2015.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "Hampshire County Council's grant from Government has been halved over the past five years and we are having to look very closely at how different services are funding. The money we pay bus operators to prop up bus services which they would not run without extra funding has been no exception.

"We have asked Hampshire residents what the most important of these subsidised services are and have focussed the funding we have for public transport subsidies accordingly - those that are in the day time and on week days. The bus operators have now released their timetables for the New Year which include changes to some of these services which are not commercially viable to run without subsidy, and I would urge passengers to check these before setting out on their journeys."

]]>Wed, 24 Dec 2014 12:30:00 GMTIt never rains but it pourshttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=661890http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=661890
It never rains but it pours

Friday 12 December 2014

Good news has been pouring into last year's flood-hit village of Hambledon; with not only funding agreed in the Chancellor's autumn statement for the new drainage scheme in the village, but work has also already commenced as a result of Hampshire County Council's upfront funding.

Now, Southern Water has announced that they are hoping to have completed by Christmas, the second phase of their £300,000 investment in improved sewage works in the village.

Councillor Roy Perry, Leader of Hampshire County Council, said:

"The confirmation in the autumn statement and the announcement by Southern Water are both very welcome. When I visited Hambledon earlier in the year, I saw at first-hand the very difficult conditions. When I went back in the summer for the Thanksgiving Service held in the Parish Church, it was still evident that people were either out of their homes, or still suffering from flood damage."

"This was why I was determined that Hampshire County Council should do its bit to get work started so people would see we were doing our level best to remedy this situation."

" I was in London earlier this week lobbying ministers and I was pleased to be given good news by Minister Kris Hopkins that he would expedite payments for Hampshire's claims under the Bellwin Scheme towards the £5 million costs we faced dealing with emergency infrastructure repairs. There is still a lot of work to do but it is definitely underway."

With groundwater levels in many parts of Hampshire still comparatively high from last winter's intense rainfall, the focus of Hampshire's highways teams throughout the summer and autumn has been to ensure the roads are in good shape to deal with winter weather.

Earlier this year, Hampshire was awarded one of the highest amounts in the South East for flood and pothole repairs, a total of £17.5 million, and set to work immediately repairing the roads. This is on top of the £54m spent annually by the Council on highways maintenance.

In the nine months since work began to repair the damage caused by the most significant rainfall to hit Hampshire for 250 years, the County Council has ensured that:

Over £29m of work has been completed

Additional work has been undertaken in known problem areas so that drains have been checked and cleared, and are ready to function at full capacity

80,000 gullies have been cleansed

Following inspections by specialist divers, £2.8m worth of repairs have been made to bridges

Extra gangs and machinery, such as high speed patching machines, were deployed to fix the flood damaged roads

Around 74km of road have been resurfaced

137 maintenance and improvement schemes have been completed at known flooding sites

50,000 potholes have been repaired so far

Investment has been made into innovative solutions to extend the life of the road network and achieve best value for money

45 local community flood plans have been established by partnership working with parish councils

Hampshire County Council Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "We've drawn on our experiences from last winter, particularly working with partners and how important it is for communities to pull together. Communities who were prepared were certainly better able to cope and recover quicker than those without flood action plans in place.

"With over 5,000 miles of road to look after in Hampshire, it's important we continue to take an innovative approach to make the most of the resources we have, looking not only at how we manage the network but also how to adapt the environment to the threat of flooding.

"A great deal of work has been done this year to repair roads damaged by flooding, and I'm pleased to see that Hampshire has come out top of all county councils for residents' satisfaction with highways maintenance in an independent national survey."

The County Council has, however, expressed caution over the recent announcement that a limited number of projects in Hampshire will receive support from the Government for funding schemes to alleviate and mitigate the impact of flooding. Many parts of Hampshire suffered groundwater flooding last winter, with highways crews working round the clock trying to keep roads passable. The County Council is pressing for a different approach to the way funding is allocated because the current method means that areas affected by groundwater flooding do not score highly enough in the Government's criteria, despite the significant economic disruption and community isolation that follows flooding of Hampshire's major transport routes.

In times of severe weather, the County Council has emergency crews on standby 24 hours a day to ensure the roads are clear and passable. Thousands of sandbags and tonnes of sand are in the County Council's highways depots across the county which can be filled by automated filling machines and deployed immediately when required to protect the highways.

]]>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:50:00 GMTWorking together to make Hampshire more resilienthttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=660007http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=660007
Working together to make Hampshire more resilient

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Parish and town councillors from across Hampshire are working in partnership with the County Council as winter sets in a bid to strengthen community resilience.

Around 100 representatives joined talks with the County Council in Winchester this week on how to manage flood risks, mitigate the effects of flooding, address funding challenges and help strengthen resilience.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Hampshire County Council's Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment, who opened the event, said: "We were reminded again last winter how effective working together with communities can be in connecting the views and needs of local residents with those of all the statutory agencies. Parish and town Councils have a very important role in helping prepare and embed community resilience, and we are committed to working with all our partners to ensure that best use is made of the resources available. Our shared knowledge and experience can help us become better prepared for the future, both in terms of responding to flooding events, but also in maximising the impact of flood defence funding and working with different partners across boundaries.

"Since last winter, we have been working hard to repair the roads damaged by the floods, putting extra resource and focus into extra drainage schemes and gully work. We were successful in bidding for money from Government for flood recovery and repairs, and now await news of our bids for flood defence and alleviation measures.

"Despite the damage to the roads inflicted by the weather, it was very encouraging to see that Hampshire was the top performing authority in the country for highways maintenance in this year's National Highways and Transport public satisfaction survey. The support provided by parish and town councils in this is hugely valued in enabling us to provide such an efficient and responsive service."

The Chairman of the Hampshire Partnership and Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Roy Perry, said: "It was good to see Hampshire's Highways contractors Amey demonstrate the latest equipment to deal with potholes and roads maintenance. Using modern and efficient technology enables us to repair more potholes more quickly and no doubt is one of the reasons why Hampshire has come out tops for road maintenance. I know there will always be potholes but we want to get them repaired as quickly as possible and I do encourage residents and road users to report any potholes."

Steven Lugg, Chief Executive of the Hampshire Association of Local Councils, said: "In serving residents' best interests local government needs to work differently, and together. Local highways support is just one of the areas where parishes and towns can add low cost support to the objective of safe, clean and drained highways. We look to every council as community leaders to make a contribution to Hampshire life."

Any communities/parishes looking to develop Community Resilience Plans should email The Emergency Planning Team at epoffice@hants.gov.uk

]]>Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:27:00 GMTBe safe on Hampshire's roads and look out for one anotherhttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=659180http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=659180
Be safe on Hampshire's roads and look out for one another

The campaign asks all road users, whether they are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or drivers, to take the time to think about others' safety and help reduce the number of casualties on Hampshire's roads.

Everyone on the roads is being asked to take extra care during Winter in all weathers. Sunny days can bring with them a low winter sun which can dazzle drivers.

Drivers can be better prepared to clear their windscreens by ensuring wiper blades are in good condition and by keeping the water reservoir levels topped up.

Drivers are asked to remember to slow down in built-up residential areas, take longer to look and slow down at junctions, and leave more room for other road users.

Whether people are walking, cycling or on a motorbike, it is important they make themselves seen at all times by wearing clothes that are bright and reflective at night and ensuring lights are working and clean.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "With the nights drawing in and the change in the weather, driving conditions can become more difficult quite quickly. By making sure we can all see and be seen, and looking out for others on the roads, we can all help keep Hampshire's roads safe for all who use them."

The County Council's Road Safety Team has a number of activities planned during the week of 17 November to remind everyone they can do their bit to keep themselves and others safe by looking after each other on the roads. This includes:

StreetSense assemblies and workshops in secondary schools

A number of Junior Road Safety Officers holding Be Bright days

60+ drivers Workshop

Events encouraging commuter cyclists to use lights in partnership with Hampshire Constabulary